Page 122 of The Fighter
“Why don’t I just do it?”
“Because then he gets away with his strategy and that won’t teach him to be a useful member of a community, will it? If he wants to eat, he can set the table.”
Raven winked at me. “I should have warned you that my mom is a master at putting people to work.”
“It’s about ingraining values. You never felt too important to help out, so I don’t know where he gets that from.”
I smiled at the women because it suddenly made sense that Raven had such a strong personality. She had grown up around women like Laura, Pearl, and Christina, and none of them fit my initial expectation that women were delicate and fragile.
“What are you thinking about?” Raven was standing right in front of me. “What’s that smile on your face?”
“Oh, nothing, I was just thinking about how my mentors used to describe women to us boys. You two are nothing like that, but then I don’t think my mentors had met a woman in real life.”
Christina laughed. “Let me guess; they told you that we women cry a lot?”
“Yes.”
“And that we have to nap like babies?”
“Yes.”
Christina nodded her head. “Alexander heard some of the same stories growing up, but then he also heard horror stories about how we Motlander women emasculated our men.”
I shifted my weight. “Yeah, but those are true. I mean look at the Motlander men. Most of them look like women – well, maybe except Jonah.”
A knock on the front door made Samara sprint to open it, and a few seconds later Mila came in with Pearl and her two children behind her.
Christina lit up. “Oh, hey. Come in. It’s good to see you. I was just explaining to Leo how we Motlander women do not emasculate our men.”
Mila walked over and hugged first Raven and then Jones, who was standing on a stool chopping cucumber. “That’s a sharp knife for a six-year-old. Careful with that.”
Jones held up the knife and flashed a smile that revealed he had lost his front teeth. “This is nothing. Dad taught me how to skin a rabbit with his big hunting knife.”
Christina froze. “He did what?”
Khan came into the kitchen, and Raven and I greeted him just as Christina leaned her head back and hollered, “Alexander, Alexander, will you come down here?”
“Uh-oh…” Jones chewed on his lip. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you that. Dad is going to be mad at me now.”
Heavy steps from upstairs heralded Alexander Boulder running down the stairs. “You’re all here.” He gave Khan a manly hug and came to shake my hand.
Christina stood with her hands on her hips. “Did you teach Jones to skin a rabbit?”
Alexander’s eyes fell on his youngest son, whose lips disappeared as if he wanted to take back his words. “Yeah, I did.”
Christina lowered her brow. “He’s a vegan.”
Boulder shrugged. “Mostly, but not all the time. Come on, honey, you can’t blame a man for teaching his sons about survival.”
Just then Indiana, who had to be around eleven, came down the stairs and Christina pointed at him. “Darling, do you know how to skin a rabbit?”
Indiana’s eyes darted between his parents before he swallowed hard. “Ehm… no, I don’t think so.”
“Tell me the truth, Indiana. Did your father teach you to skin a rabbit?”
Khan lifted his arm, signaling for the boy to come closer. “You’d better say yes, or I’ll be very disappointed in your dad. Every real Nman knows how to hunt and prepare his own food.”
“Of course I taught him.” Boulder walked over to Christina and wrapped his hands around her from the back. “We talked about this. We teach them our way of living and they get to make up their own minds. I’m not forcing them to eat meat and you can’t force them to be vegan.”
